What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a broad field, and means different things to different people. It is concerned with getting computers to do tasks that require human intelligence.

However, having said that, there are many tasks which we might reasonably think require intelligence, such as complex arithmetic which computer can do very easily. Conversely, there are many tasks that people do without even thinking, such as recognizing a face which are extremely difficult to automate. AI is concerned with these difficult tasks, which require complex and sophisticated reasoning processes and knowledge.

Typical AI Problems

We can get an insight into some of the different problem areas within AI by considering just what we, as humans, need to be able to do to act intelligently in the world. Consider a simple task like going shopping. We need to plan what to buy, how to get into town, and where to go, navigate round the crowded shops without bumping into things, interpret what we see and communicate effectively with people we meet. These are sometimes referred to as mundane tasks and correspond to the following AI problem areas: 

• Planning: the ability to decide on a good sequence of actions to achieve our goals.
• Vision: the ability to make sense of what we see.
• Robotics: the ability to move and act in the world, possibly responding to new perceptions.
• Natural language: the ability to communicate with others in English or other human language.